Colson Whitehead
The author of The Underground Railroad, Oprah’s new book-club pick, talks about making fiction from history’s great atrocity
How did this story come to you? I was thinking how, when you’re a kid, you think the Underground Railroad is a literal railroad. It was the year 2000. I was finishing up John Henry Days. I didn’t feel like doing another research-heavy book. Slavery is such a huge topic—I didn’t feel up for it emotionally. Every couple of years I would go back to the
